This week brought not one but TWO proposals in Congress that would allegedly end the worst of the NSA’s spying programs. But neither bill goes far enough. Meanwhile, the USA Freedom Act — a strong bill that would go a long way toward restoring our right to communicate in private — is still on the table. And it needs our support. Take a moment to urge President Obama to stand up for real NSA reform. Tell him to support the USA Freedom Act. After months of deliberation, President Obama has announced a proposal to end the NSAs warrantless collection of millions of phone records.1 Under this proposal, these records would stay with the phone companies, and the NSA would need to get a special court order to collect metadata about our calls. Thanks to public pressure from Free Press Action Fund activists and our friends, the president is moving in the right direction. But his solution doesnt go far enough. Tell President Obama to Support the USA Freedom Act. The presidents proposal wouldnt do anything to address the many other ways the NSA and other agencies spy on millions of people in the U.S. and around the world — by tracking our Web searches, reading our emails, even serving National Security Letters that make it illegal for people to speak out. That’s why President Obama needs to support the USA Freedom Act — which would shut down the NSAs back-door warrantless searches of our private information and improve transparency and oversight of the NSAs spying programs. Meanwhile, the other surveillance bills in Congress are full of fake fixes. The FISA Transparency and Modernization Act — which Reps. Mike Rogers and Dutch Ruppersberger introduced this week — bolsters some of the NSAs worst practices, including the accessing of phone records without a warrant.2 And Sen. Dianne Feinsteins so-called FISA Improvements Act would make permanent a loophole permitting the NSA to search for Americans identifying information without a warrant.3 The USA Freedom Act is the best bill we have to stop the worst of the NSAs abuses. It will go much farther to protect our rights to connect and communicate than any of the other options on the table. We cant let President Obama fall for a fake fix. Its time for him to support the USA Freedom Act. Thanks for all that you do— Josh, Candace and the rest of the Free Press Action Fund team freepress.net P.S. The Free Press Action Fund fights for your privacy each and every day. We dont take money from business, government or political parties and rely on the generosity of people like you to fuel our work. Please donate $15 (or more!) today. Thank you! 1. Statement by the President on the Section 215 Bulk-Metadata Program, White House, March 27, 2014: act.freepress.net/go/15966?t=9&akid=4668.10141367.Y8H8aM 2. Bulk Data-Collection Reform: A Tale of Two Legislative Proposals, Access, March 24, 2014: act.freepress.net/go/15962?t=11&akid=4668.10141367.Y8H8aM 3. Feinstein Promotes Bill to Strengthen NSA’s Hand on Warrantless Searches, Guardian, Nov. 15, 2013: act.freepress.net/go/15963?t=13&akid=4668.10141367.Y8H8aM Free Press is a nonpartisan organization building a nationwide movement for media that serve the public interest. Learn more at freepress.net. Join us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. You can unsubscribe from this mailing list at any time.
Posted on: Sun, 30 Mar 2014 00:08:32 +0000